I was always led to believe, from copious Internet reports, that during his New Japan debut match, Vader defeated Inoki in under three minutes.

So I finally got to see a match from that time period. It is definitely Vader and Inoki. I was informed it was their 12/27/87 encounter. According to purodvd.com who sells the event (see screenshot <a href='http://www.purodvd.com/njpwclassics111504.htm' target='_blank'>here</a>), I do indeed have the right match (you can see screens from the match I have below).

[CENTER] [/CENTER]

The problem is.... not only does Vader not win in 3 minutes, but he doesn't win at all. The match goes around 10 minutes, and the match is thrown out due to interferance and the referee getting knocked out. Now I realize that sometimes the "legend" of a match can grow over the years, but this is a huge difference. Anyone have any insight as to why there is apparently this mistake in puroresu results around the web??

This actually is the only match I have seen him with the full suit, and the full mask, and the sceptor. They went all out with his character. For the 1/88 fight with Inoki he wore the mask but actually had on no shirt at all.

Not a wrong result. I actually saw the match (my mother was nice enough to tape it in Japan and sent me right away in 87/88).

Vander actually beat Inoki in few minutes right after Inoki had a match against Choshu on the same card which also included the first two matches on the list (tag match with UWF guys and IWGP jr. title match).